This class is designed to provide new Theatre Department students with the essential tools for approaching text and character. The first semester uses a “neutral voice” monologue aimed at helping students experience freedom from habitual vocal and movement patterns. Students also begin work with Shakespeare in their first semester. In the second half of year one, students focus on work from Timothy Mason’s The Less Than Human Club as a way of exploring intention and objective. Mason’s text give students direct access to these techniques as his characters are near Academy student’s ages and often mirror student’s unique personalities.